By Rickard K. Moore, from a discussion on PNews list, 10
March 1995. Until such time as employment patterns are
more reflective of population patterns, some kind of
affirmative action—in both education and employment
can help unite society by reducing racial segregation and
reducing race-based economic stratification.

By Vic Perlo, People’s Weekly World,
18 March 1995. Two recent columns in New York
newspapers. In the first, Affirmative action hasn’t
helped Blacks, Wall Street Journal columnist Farrell
Bloch unwittingly shows that affirmative action has helped
Blacks and, at the same time, reveals his own racism.

By Grover C. Furr, 27 March 1995. Affirmative action has
scarcely been implemented with regard to blacks and
latins, but, if it were, it would benefit, not just blacks
and latins, but white male workers as well. It would,
however, harm employers, and hence the opposition to
it.

By Thomas Spear, 4 April 1995, with an additional
comment by Chris Lowe. Professors Jan Vansina and Curtin
protest against the illegal listing African history
job vacancies by favoring certain categories of applicants
without taking account of equal quality. Does reverse
discrimination exist? Lowe addresses the distinction
between objective and subjective racism.

By Abdul Alkalimat, People’s Tribune,
November 1997. There is considerable evidence that
Americans are turning against affirmative action even
while continuing to believe in democracy and fair play. A
majority of whites are against affirmative action, but
most black people are for it. Why?

By Roberta Wood, People’s Weekly
World, 28 March 1998. The unity of the whole
working class is like a giant boulder blocking the Big
Business steamroller agenda. Corporate America knows it
never has and never can win over the American people on
its real issues. So the foundations have worked first to
produce materials that foster a climate of hostility to
affirmative action, and even to racial minorities and have
funded individuals and organizations leading the
charge.

By Sean Gonsalves, AlterNet, 21 August 2001. A society
steeped in centuries of white supremacy won’t be
magically transformed into a colorblind utopia. I’m
not suggesting that affirmative action is our salvation,
but neither is it the reverse racism that some opponents
claim.